Prosecutor wants shaman's death

MEDAN, North Sumatra: The prosecution has demanded that the Lubuk Pakam District Court sentence to death shaman Achmad Suraji, alias Nasib Kelewang, alias Datuk, for the alleged premeditated murders of 42 women.

In his 322-page sentencing demand Monday, Prosecutor Eddy Nurdin told the court, presided over by Judge Syamsul Bahri, that Datuk, 47, had strangled to death all his victims and sucked their saliva right before their death.

Eddy told the court that Datuk has shown no remorse for what he has done and that he was once convicted of a crime. Eddy did not give details of the previous conviction.

"He is a man with no sense of humanity," the prosecutor told the court, which was packed with 400 spectators.

Datuk was accompanied by lawyers from the Medan Legal Aid Institute, Nur Alamsyah and Dasad Tarigan, who would give their defense statement in the next session, scheduled for April 6.

Datuk, who has claimed to have killed the women to strengthen his healing magical power, was arrested last year following a father's report to police of his daughter's disappearance after she went to the shaman's house for treatment.

Police believed that Datuk, who is married to three sisters, was a serial killer they have been hunting since 1990.

Datuk buried all his victims in a cane plantation 40 meters from his house in Sei Semayang subdistrict of North Sumatra's Deli Serdang regency, where police have unearthed the skeletons and remains of 42 victims. (21/aan)